


Contre-jour

by kangeiko



Category: Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson
Genre: Gen, Yuletide, Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-25
Updated: 2008-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-11 02:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangeiko/pseuds/kangeiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sax pays a visit to the Antarctica training grounds post-<i>Blue Mars</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contre-jour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ellen_fremedon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellen_fremedon/gifts).



This is one of the things he's forgotten. Or maybe it's one of the things that was stripped from him, back when he thought most memory an encumbrance; too many useless facts littering up the all-too-limited landscape of his mind. Strange how their loss sends him adrift, even now: no compass for this land, though he knows he's walked it before. No familiar glare to his eyes the endless white, nor the thick scent of salt carried to him across the ice sheets of Lake Bonney. He's been here before, he knows. He knows he pressed his gloved hands awkwardly against the heavy ice, waiting for the sun to cast its light through the frozen silt and light up the lake bed from beneath. _It was just here,_ Ann says, and guides him to the side. _Just here, where we could see McMurdo Sound. Do you remember, Sax?_

He doesn't. Not this strange birthing ground for him, not even Ann - the memories of her fuzzy with the glow of artificial light against the grey base walls - have left their footprints here.

He shakes his head, lumbering and awkward beneath the cold weather gear. _I don't,_ he says, and there is nothing regretful about it. _Will you show me again?_

Beyond the shores of the lake, the light plays tricks. (If he closes his eyes, he's a young man again.)  


*

fin


End file.
